To Infinity and Beyond: Progress Studies @3QD [Progress Studies]

My latest article for 3 Quarks Daily is up:

From Progress Studies to Progress: Through decadence and beyond.

I sweated blood to write it and did three preparatory posts earlier that week:

Tuesday, June 16: From Progress Studies to Progress [A Ministry of the Future]

Wednesday, June 17: Some videos that that need to be seen together: From Progress Studies to Progress, OR: Breaking out of the mid-20th century optimism bubble

Thursday, June 18, 2020: What’s the way to progress? Evolution, revolution, or revolution through evolution? [Progress Studies]

The general idea is to place the proposed Progress Studies into a larger context, relating it to science fiction, Future Studies, and scenario planning.

I was also concerned/puzzled about the optimism expressed within the movement. It felt like a throwback to the past. In particular, to the techno-optimism typified by Walt Disney In this video from 1966 in which he proposes something he called the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (E.P.C.O.T.). Disney made the following short film to convince business leaders and Florida politicians (the project was to be located in central Florida) to join with him in this effort:

The first five minutes is an account of Disneyland, which you may skip over if you wish. Uncle Walt starts narrating at about 5:13. The good stuff starts at 9:30, when Disney starts laying out the E.P.C.O.T. concept.

The problem, in seemed to me, is that the world had changed a great deal since Disney delivered that video. We can’t simply reach back into the past and avail ourselves of the optimism. We need to craft our own rationale and drive grounded in the world as it is now. The 3 Quarks Daily piece sketched out a way of doing that.

Bonus: The article’s subtitle, “Through decadence and beyond” is a parody of Buzz Lightyear’s motto: “To Infinity… and Beyond.”